Heterosexism

Heterosexism is defined as discrimination or prejudice against homosexuals on the assumption that heterosexuality is the normal sexual orientation. "Law and Order: Special Victims Unit" chronicles the lives and cases of the detectives of this Manhattan based crime squad. Throughout this long running series, detectives Stabler, Benson, Munch, and Tutuola have had to deal with difficult and often tragic cases ranging from rape to domestic violence to the horrible crimes committed against children. Although this show has pretty much always portrayed the lifestyles of heterosexual people, it has also discussed the lives of homosexual and many of the hardships they have.
One episode that comes into mind comes from the fifth season; it is titled "Abomination". In this episode, a homosexual who just happens to be the face of a sexual re-education group is found murdered in an alley way. At first detectives suspect Reverend Mitchell Shaw, an outspoken minister who flooded the victim with hate mail and death threats, with his murder. After the minister's alibi clears him, suspicion falls on Dr. Roger Tate a professor who was completely against homosexuality and believed that it is a mental disease that could be cured with therapy. He opposed the victim's claim that sexual re-education groups did not actually and made people more miserable. It turns out that the professor's own son is gay and was in relationship with the victim.
Throughout this episode, it did not seem that the show was promoting heterosexual privilege but it did seem that some of the characters did not completely agree with the idea of homosexuality. On the one hand you had Detective Elliot Stabler, a former marine and a veteran of the Special Victims Unit with a family. He believed that homosexuality was something a person chose. While he did not outright condemn it, he still insinuated that he believed that having a wife and children was the correct way to live. However, Detective Olivia Benson did not believe so. A single woman bent on helping all victims however she could, she believed that there is no correct way to live and that like heterosexuality, no one chooses to be gay. Even though it seems that this episode tried to send the message that whatever lifestyle a person chose was his or her own prerogative, the show still demonstrated some unfair stereotypes of gay people. For example, the gay characters of this episode were completely promiscuous and they had no sense of morality. For example, the son of the professor takes the blame for killing the victim and does not show any remorse. He is more focused on hiding the fact that he is gay (you kind of have to watch the episode to be able to truly understand). It looks like that show's writers are not completely unbiased just yet.
The idea that heterosexuality is the correct sexual orientation is preposterous. It nice to see that media is starting to address the issues that homosexual people go through. The fact that "Law and Order: SVU" provides different perspectives (though not perfectly) is nice because no one is being severely antagonized. Hopefully there will come a time where the subject of homosexuality is not such a taboo topic.